Spiral Bound

11 November 2004

Spiral Bound

After a decade in business, Scott Spiral has become a market leader in its field, with the help of a dedicated team, a commitment to quality, and XLERPLATE®.

This hardworking, young, manufacturing company commenced operations in 1994, under the guiding hands of its directors, Scott Kelf and Gregory Bloxham. With 29 employees working from its premises in Victoria and New South Wales, Scott Spiral is now one of Australia's leading manufacturers and suppliers of sectional screw conveyor flights.

"Screw flights are used predominantly to dig and to convey material," explains Barry Dorrity, Divisional Manager at Scott Spiral. "Our core business is the design, fabrication, manufacture and supply of screw flights to a range of industries, such as bulk handling, chemical, mining, agricultural, digging auger and the piling industry."

Scott Spiral's manufacturing division is located in Dandenong, Victoria. The company's sales and design warehouse is located in St Mary's, Sydney, and it has a network of distributors in Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia. A constant emphasis on quality, service and price has enabled Scott Spiral to grow its reputation and business significantly nationally and overseas, expanding its operations to include markets in the United States and South East Asia.

"Our key philosophy centres on a dedication to being the best, most reliable and cost effective supplier in the market," says Barry. "We are extremely good at producing the best quality parts available, and this is heavily supported by our ongoing commitment to customer service."

"We are currently holding around A$0.5 million in our range of standard components to assist our clients in both quick manufacturing times at an inexpensive cost to them."

"We also invest heavily in research and development," he continues, "especially in terms of our machinery and equipment, we are always trying to do things bigger, better, faster".

Despite Scott Spiral's decade of success, there are some major challenges for the business, says Barry. "We constantly find it very difficult to find skilled labour, and also struggle with the competitive nature of imports."

"However, our vision and focus is on continuing to be leaders in both international and domestic sales and manufacturing markets, and to continue our research and development program to enhance manufacturing techniques and our product range," he adds.

Scott Spiral is currently designing and manufacturing a coal feeder conveying system for one of the world's largest power generation companies. The company is supplying approximately A$1.9 million worth of product over the next two years. The majority of the equipment will be fabricated with XLERPLATE® coil plate. XLERPLATE® coil plate is a brand of high quality hot rolled plate produced by BlueScope Steel, Australia's largest steel company.

"We use AS/NZS 1594 - HA200 XLERPLATE® coil plate and AS/NZS 1594 - HA250 XLERPLATE® coil plate in 3000 mm x 1500 mm size sheet, ranging in thickness from 1.6 mm to 12.0 mm," says Barry. "We use in excess of 1,000 tonnes of XLERPLATE® per annum."

"The process of fabricating a screw flight is simple," says Barry. "The material is cut to size by oxy profile cutting, laser cutting, or plasma cutting, depending on the material form, whether it be stainless steel, light gauge material, or intricate cutting shapes. Once cut, the steel is then formed in one of Scott Spiral's six screw flight machines. We currently have over 10,000 varying screw flight sizes". Flights are then fitted to pipe and welded. "The flights are snapped onto a pipe in line with each other, end to end. All up, it's a very straightforward process," Barry adds.

According to Barry, quality is just one of the reasons that Scott Spiral uses XLERPLATE® exclusively in the manufacture of its screw flights. "We have found XLERPLATE® coil plate to be a very good material to work with. It can be easily welded, cut and formed without compromising its inherent strengths."

"A good supplier is just as important as dedicated staff and loyal clients," says Barry. "We predominately deal direct with Smorgon Steel, one of BlueScope Steel's distributors. We have a good relationship with them, and we are very happy with the service we receive, which, we believe, is definitely due in part to the assistance that BlueScope Steel provides to our suppliers."